One subject; two headlines.
Strib: Panel backs negotiations to acquire stadium
site.
PiPress: Minneapolis landowner touts site for new
ballpark.
so what!
There are some facts in the PiPress that are of
interest. First the writers focus on the landowner is
intriguing to me. He even has a website:
www.urbanballpark.com
Question: What's driving the decision? The sale of
land by a generous contributor to political campaigns
or the genuine desire and belief that this is the best
possible site for a stadium.
In Rochelle Olson's account in the Strib she spoke of
a sense of urgency as the last two favorite sites were
"snapped up" by other entities. Hey it was the city
who sold the land in both those cases. wHAT'S the
urgency here? Is someone out there just dying to snap
up Bruce Lambrecht's surface parking lots in the
shadow of the garbage burner?
Then there is this item. The city/MCDA has assessed
the value of the 11.2 acre parcel as $10million, by
mere coincidence the exact figure which the city could
not go over without calling into play a city-wide
referendum.
In the PiPress, Rachel Stassen-Berger reports that the
owner estimates the value of his land at $18million.
Watch for the slider on the outside corner.
What happens if the city and owner deadlock on price,
the city exercises eminent domain and pays Lambrecht
$10 million, avoiding a referendum, and then at a
later date, say when the first concrete is poured for
a foundation the court comes back and tells the city
to fork over another $8 mil? We're talking Target
Store all over again, eh! That last part was for you
Canadians in the audience.
Here we get to the fun part.
The third recommendation of the C-17 task force reads:
BE VISIONARY; a site should not be selected merely
because it offers convenient parking or will cause the
least amount of disruption. Many suburban sites could
accomplish these goals. Rather, the ideal site would
be one where the integration of the ballpark into the
existing mosaic of city architecture will capture the
community's imagination and where the surrounding
neighborhood would seem worthy of significant
investment in complimentary housing, office and
retail.
Keeping those thoughts in mind and trying to envision
the site we're talking about here, how could anyone,
even the most befuddled city planner, ever fit this
site with this recommendation?
No. This is a horrible site.
Let's wedge a stadium that will probably end up
costing the city more than originally stated into a
site bordered by bland parking ramps, a garbage
burner, access roads to freeways, etc. And where are
the opportunities for the wonderful mix of housing,
retail and commercial space.
This site is expedient for the "entertainment
district" we used to call lovingly the warehouse
district before all the sports marketers got hip to
its possibility and ruined its charm.
Now some might say "Fine, that's a great place to put
it." I don't think so. The DOME has lasted 18 years as
a venue; how long would you give this stadium before
people would tire of it.
I might be wrong but, as a former dedicated baseball
fan who went to the first baseball game played in the
dome on a snowy April or March evening to watch the
Phillies, hoping to be pleasantly surprised and
instead went home with vertigo and a nosebleed, vowing
never to go back and yet relenting only to feel
anxiety at the claustrophobia of the place next time,
I don't think so.
Then there is the matter of the garbage burner! Does
anyone know what hydrogen chloride is and does to the
environment, especially people?
I ask only because in the PiPress on an opposite page
from their story on the ballpark site, there was a
small news item that the Henn.Cty. garbage burner had
paid a $22,000 fine for excessive emissions and
maintenance problems. I'll leave it to others to
follow up on the details.
Suffice it to say, I think this plan is not good.
Believe me, I am tempering my remarks.
Play ball!
Tim Connolly
Ward 7
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